Let’s Get Homer Simpson’s Hands Off the Controls: William Pesek

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese executives aren’t known for
bucking the establishment. Hiroshi Mikitani is a rare exception
at a time when rebellion is most needed.

The president of Rakuten Inc., Japan’s biggest online
retailer, turned 46 on March 11. That was the day when a record
earthquake and tsunami set off the worst nuclear crisis since
Chernobyl and forever changed the way Japanese view the reactors
in their midst. Almost five months later, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi
plant is still leaking radioactivity.

A growing majority of the nation’s 127 million people want
a future devoid of radiation-contaminated air and food, and who
can blame them? Forget it, says corporate Japan. The economy
will collapse if we give up on nuclear power.

Count Mikitani among those who disagree. He recently quit
Japan’s main business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, to protest its
support of the energy status quo. Good for him. Japan needs to
harness power from safer sources, but the government lacks the
courage to seek them. So, the private sector is filling the void
-- a rare event in Japan.

Most notable is Masayoshi Son, the 53-year-old chief
executive officer of Softbank Corp. The billionaire first
cracked the monopolies that dominated Japan’s telecommunications
industry. Now he’s shaking up the utilities market with plans to
invest about $1 billion to build 10 solar farms.

Short-Timer

Granted, Prime Minister Naoto Kan would like to take on the
alliance of politicians, bureaucrats and power companies
promoting the nuclear industry. He has even proposed a halt to
plans for 14 new reactors. Yet he is a short-timer; he pledged
to step down once emergency-funding bills are passed.

It is naive to think the forces arrayed against Kan aren’t
playing a role in his demise. More than any leader, Kan has
taken on the nuclear-industrial complex, Japan’s answer to the
nexus of business and the military in the U.S. Expect the knives
to be out for any leader with reformist sensibilities.

The industry’s allies are rallying to maintain the
supremacy of nuclear power. A huge scare campaign is under way
to convince voters that living standards will shrivel if Japan
de-emphasizes atomic energy. Before the Fukushima disaster, the
industry provided about 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The
plan was for that to rise to 53 percent by 2030.

Human Factor

The earthquake changed all that. The science of nuclear
power makes perfect sense on paper. It emits little pollution or
greenhouse gases and doesn’t rely on dirty and expensive
imported fossil fuel. Yet something that didn’t change between
Ukraine in 1986 and Japan in 2011 is the risk of design flaws,
shoddy construction and poor training of reactor personnel. In
other words, the human factor.

Fukushima’s back-up generators that might have averted the
disaster were located in a basement and swamped by the waves.
The monumental foolishness of that is summed up by Ken Brockman,
a former director of nuclear installation safety at the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna: “This in the
country that invented the word tsunami.”

The bigger irony is how the only nation ever to be attacked
by nuclear weapons -- and the one with the most seismic activity
-- so enthusiastically embraced a nuclear future. If the last
five months taught us anything, it’s the need to reconsider.

No one is saying turn off all the reactors; the $5 trillion
economy has enough problems. Yet Japan needs an explosion of
fresh ideas, innovation and investment to become less reliant on
reactors. Unless engineers can build them out of rubber, elevate
them on huge shock absorbers and address every potential risk --
including terrorism -- this should be a priority for any leader
who succeeds Kan.

Homer in Charge?

A recurring question in Tokyo has been: Who put Homer
Simpson in charge? Japan’s nuclear safety record these last 15
years seems no sounder than that of the fictional Springfield
Nuclear Power Plant, where on “The Simpsons,” Homer is head of
safety. Only, this is no laughing matter.

Alternative energy is an obvious chance for Japan to lead
the world. Deflation and excessive debt cost Japan its economic
vitality, especially as China thundered ahead to become the
world’s second-biggest economy. Credit Suisse Group AG,
Switzerland’s second-largest bank, recently stopped bothering to
cover Japanese banks.

Role Model

For all its economic sclerosis, Japan is a role model when
it comes to energy efficiency. This can be seen in Tokyo’s
ability to avoid blackouts without Fukushima’s reactors
providing power to the city. Japan should act fast to assert
itself as the dominant power in clean energy, solar technology
and storage batteries. It would create jobs, wealth and
international prestige.

Sadly, Tokyo’s political class is preoccupied with
internal, shortsighted squabbles. The good news is that the
private sector is pushing ahead on its own. Mikitani’s boycott
of the powerful Nippon Keidanren is a case in point.

The efforts by Softbank’s Son are even more important. His
$1 billion pledge is contingent upon getting access to
transmission networks and regional utilities buying his
electricity. As of July 27, a total of 17 big Japanese cities
jumped on the alternative-to-nuclear bandwagon, the Asahi
newspaper reported.

It’s a good start toward getting Homer Simpson’s hands off
the controls -- and a rare sign of hope in a nation that hasn’t
had a lot to cheer about.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)